Rock band Motley Crue’s
drummer, Tommy Lee, has written a letter to Alberta’s premier urging her to “use
her influence” to cancel the chuckwagon races at this year’s Calgary
Stampede.

Lee says in the letter to Alison Redford that horses are injured or killed in
the races every year.

“I love touring Canada, and our Calgary fans are among the roughest and
toughest. But I’ve heard about some unwilling participants in an annual local
event much harsher than a Motley Crue show – the
horses killed year after year in the chuckwagon races at the Calgary Stampede,”
Lee writes to Redford, who is also a Calgary MLA.

“The only way to make these races safe is to cancel them. There was a time
when cowboys respected their horses, instead of riding them to death just to
show off for a crowd.”

The letter was written on the behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of
Animals, an animal rights advocacy group that is a longtime critic of the chuckwagon races.

“I learned from my friends at PETA that despite new rules to make the races
safer last year, three horses had to be euthanized after crippling injuries when their
wagons collided,” wrote Lee.

“The horses forced into the chuckwagon races die of heart attacks, broken
necks, broken legs and other injuries. It’d be easy to get off on western
tradition without this bloody spectacle.

“Dude, it’s the Old West, not ancient Rome!”

There was no immediate response from the Premier’s office.

The event is one of the most popular at the Stampede. It invariably sells out
each year, but concerns over animal welfare have become more prevalent over the
last decade and were magnified in 2010 after six horses died.

“We would urge him and anybody who has that feeling to actually talk to the
drivers themselves about the care and well-being that they provide to their
animals.”

In 2011, the Stampede adopted new rules for rodeo events and chuckwagon races
to try to provide more protection for both human and animal participants.

“All we can do is repeat that our approach to care for the performance horses
that are brought to Stampede Park every year has always been aggressive and
based on science,” said Fraser.

Canadian-born celebrity Pamela Anderson, who was once married to Lee, spoke
out against the chuckwagon races last year, also on behalf of PETA.

A PETA spokesman said Lee heard about chuckwagon racing from Anderson and it
made sense to take advantage of Motley Crue’s concert in Calgary on Monday to issue a
pre-emptive strike.

“Usually you hear about the disasters at the chuckwagon races and all the
horse injuries after the fact,” said PETA vice-president Dan Mathews.

“We thought the fact that Tommy, who’s a longtime PETA spokesperson, is in Calgary with
Motley Crue before the event that he
should give everybody a heads-up and call on the Premier to act responsibly and
cancel the chuckwagon races.”

Lee was travelling with his band and was unavailable for an interview. He did
say in his letter that he’d love to have Redford as his guest at the
concert.

Topics

Next story

| Learn More

Discover content from The Globe and Mail that you might otherwise not have come across. Here we’ll provide you with fresh suggestions where we will continue to make even better ones as we get to know you better.

You can let us know if a suggestion is not to your liking by hitting the ‘’ close button to the right of the headline.